Filming schedule

I compiled a filming schedule in order to have a clear understanding of when we are going to film. Having the schedule allows us to see clearly were and when we will be during particular point in our day. This kind of organisation makes teamwork move a lot smoothly.

Image of our Hip- hop artists / performers

Our hip hop artist will be in his casual clothing. Throughout the video the performers will be wearing different but the same style of clothes. Accessories is also a big part of a hip hop artist as well, we want to show that they have good fashion sense, style and think a lot about their clothing.



                     
Jeans, baseball jackets, hooded sweatshirt, baggy T-shirt.However we think accessories is just important as the clothes they are wearing such as jewelry/watches, shoes/trainers, flat peaks and headphones.

Location scouting

Now we have a Narrative for our music video we decided we should start to scout for locations. This is the chosen location for the performance part of our music video.

This is a projector in the school hall which we will use as just a plain white backdrop. Originally the lighting was very poor so we decided to use some extra spot lights.

Chosen Narrative idea

Final Narrative

Our main character Mikel, is in desperate need of money and decides to sell on some fake drugs thinking the customer would be to scared to say anything. However the customer is stronger than he looks, Mikel escapes but the customer James ends up severly injuring Mikels driver Tonks. 

Mikels actions caused Tonks to be severly injured so Mikel decidedes to come clean off drugs and not to deal anymore. He continues to persue a career in music as an MC. Mikels talent is clear and through the video you see him evolving into a better person.

Mikels life is better than it has ever been and gets signed by a successful record label. Mikel goes to into town to buy his album from a music shop.

As he is listening to his album in the street he gets spotted by James group of friends and gets beaten up and killed for what he has done in his past.

As well as the narrative we also have a performance part in the music video. It will switch between both throughout the whole of the video. The performance will be the rappers rapping on a white background, however at the end the background will turn to black to represent death and darkness in the video.


In our music video we want to portray the artist as a bad character however he turns into a good character.

These are the kind of scenes we will and have been filming in order to put together our music video:
-Dealing Drugs
-Being involved with violence or general crime
-Vandalism
-Pragmatically implying the use of drugs
-Fighting
-Robbery

We have decided to do the drug scene mainly because it will be easy to shoot as we don't need to involve more than two characters or any other props except the people and the 'drug'. Also drug is a major factor when talking about crime so it could also imply a whole other set of crimes that he might do without showing it.

In the second verse the lyrics are a lot more positive, so for the second verse we need to show him as a changed man not as the criminal he is before. There are a number of ways we can do this too but with a lot of successful criminals being rappers, we will show him on the path to becoming a rapper.

Narrative ideas

Idea 1

After facing financial struggle Mikel seeks to find alternative and more deceptive routes for aquiring his payment. In order to do this he decides to fake a batch of drugs and sell them on for the usual price. However the customer quickly realises the drugs are fake. The customer goes after the driver and stabs him injuring him badly.

 Mikel  decides he doesnt want to live this way anymore worrying about getting caught by the police or in danger with the customers. For a long time life seems to be OK, he has everything that comes with his music career as an MC the money and financial happiness.

Unfortunately as life is at its best for Mikel the victim of the fraud soon has still not forgotten and sees the drug dealer on the street and consequently kills him.

Idea 2

Our main actor goes from drug dealer to done good musician, however can not help but maintain his drug dealing ways. This gets him into trouble in various ways and the story would progress.
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Narrative Choice
Our group have decided that idea one would be the best plot for our to video to follow as we feel it best suite the lyrics and pacing of the song.

Understanding and developing Narrative

Narrative and Performance

As a group we decided it would be best of we all began to compile together an idea of what our video was going to be about. We did this in the form brainstorming ideas collectively as a group and  then noting them down on paper. We used the lyrics as an illustrative guide to help us create and develop an idea behind the whole story of the video.

My first page of notes was a discussion on locations of the video and the different themes we could uses
what the lyrics are talking about.
In our group we decided that for the performance portion of the video we would use the Drama studio with spotlighting and a very dark surrounding. As far as camera work is concerned we could have it revolving around the artist coming from the back to the front and than cutting from left to right in a slow drifting motion.








These are some of the notes we wrote up when we were brainstorming ideas for the music video.

At the beginning of the song the opening singer makes mention of some car imagery, so it was suggested we include a vehicle of some sort. However the group decided that the imagery is not repeated enough for it to be vital to the narrative of the video.

We felt in order to give the impression of the artist as being a spirit like character he should be included in most scenes as if narrating the narrative and performing all at the same time. We would do this by having him included in the studio scenes on his own, but also in front of the illustrative scenes as they unfold. In order to get an equal balance of imagery and artist, we felt it best to have some shots were we only show conceptual images such as a lane; to correspond with the lyrics "I have been down memory lane" and also some home video footage for the line "looking at the past and all things that I've lost".

As a final point for this page, I would say that one of the shots we felt we could include was in relation to the line "dark clouds follow". It was suggested that we could include the imagery of a sun roof on a car opening as the car was moving. I really like this idea as I feel it captures the idea of escapism perfectly, which is what this song is all about.


On the second sheet, we carried on talking about the imagery that should be featured in our video. We decided that our chorus should include a mixture of conceptual vignettes and performance.

Narrative and Performance (Part 2)

Whilst discussing the matter of narrative further we realised that it should be our main priority to try and show the theme of Driftin away as much as possible. Therefore we put in place some ideas as possible imagery to describe this theme.

The themes we came up with were:
                                                                                     

• A character or singer Drinking or at least an implication of excessive alcohol consumption.
• Domestic violence or general Arguuments and thus leading to the loss friends
• A person walking away from the camera
• Some on trying to shut the world out by putting on head phones
• The use of muting the background noise to imply being in your own little bubble

Next we returned to the idea of were would be best to set our video, these were the three location we felt would be most in keeping with the genre of Hip Hop and also the themes of our song:

• Church 
• Bedroom 
• Family Home
• Stage Studio 

J luciano ft Reasin- Driftin away Lyrics

To create a narrative for the song, we felt we should write down the lyrics to see what imagery is being portrayed in the song.

 LYRICS

Bin Chilling on this dirt road

Late Night swerving like I'm George Drolles

Smoke growing out the window

and ice cold beer sitting in the console.

Memory Lane up in the head lights

its got me reminiscing on them good times

I'm turning off a real life track

that's right

I'm hitting easy street in good time

[End of acoustic opening]

[Chorus]

W-ahh!

Beats running down these back roads

Smoking on some endo

drinking and I'm on my grind

I've been hustling for a long time

Standing in a long line

Baby, I'm Just tryna get mine

Driftin Aw--------------ay,

Sittin on a cloud and I feel fine

Drifin Aw--------------ay

Too many problems on my mind

[Chorus ends]

[Verse 2]

Smoking

And i'm riding down the backstreets

dark clouds follow 

I always been a black sheep

Allow me to introduce my self 

I'm Nobody

So don't worry when I nuke myself

thats the drink tallking

step in the bank and im j-walking

Estate processed

Stay smoking

so I stayed competent

Get'ch ya Hustler

Riding till my luck is up

I just wanna make a million 

bucks, so I can double up

Thinking bout the past 

and all the things that i've lost 

The money, the people, the cars and

the house,but you live and you learn 

and everyones concerned 

until the cash run out 

and then every body turns

[end of verse 2]

[Loop Chorus]

[Verse 3]

I've been down memory lane

Its something strange

but I'm thinking deep off in my brain

have i changed?

I'm still the same

But we dig a change

I saw the bigger picture

I had plys like gritcher

Had da look in tha' mirror

Now my vision is clear

Go grab me a beer 

lets toast to time

show him that we notice him

ye we focussed in 

never off guard

still in charge

on the boulevard

Play it smart

ye we hitting hard

and away we go living positive 

salute, my accomplishments

its weird how we reminisce

trial for excellence

feeling better than I've ever been

Sipping on that medicine

check my measurements 

I am never off 

that nourishment

[Chorus Loop] 

{Just Driftin Away Part}

[Song fades out]

[End of song]